


Come Closer And See Into The Trees

by donniedont



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Crush, Fluff, Forests, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Recreational Drug Use, Trans Character, Underage Drinking, Writing Style Blend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25928716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donniedont/pseuds/donniedont
Summary: The slow rolling sound of water begins to cut through the occasional branches moving with the breeze.  He follows it, feeling the ground sink under his weight with each step.  Dimitri fumbles for his phone in his pocket, turning on the flashlight to see if he can spot any potential puddles.  They glow under the harsh light, Dimitri’s path weaving to evade them.When a particularly large one takes up a large portion of his path, he decides to see if he can jump it.  He rocks back on his heels several times before he hops, his spring slipping forward as his ass falls into the water.  The mud soaks through his jeans immediately.  He yells as an afterthought, an experiment to hear how it sounds.Dimitri wanders away from a party and reconnects with an old friend.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Glenn Fraldarius
Kudos: 10





	Come Closer And See Into The Trees

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was made possible by Elliot, Eth, and Milly, who gave me the following guidelines from the Writing Style Blend meme:
> 
> -Short/no dialogue, particularly with Dimitri  
> -Fluff/smut without too much pondering  
> -Nobody goes left or has a breakdown  
> -Everybody is very chill
> 
> I... tried! It's really hard to write Dimitri with these constraints, but I feel like I had to write from his POV to really have this be a challenge. So... enjoy!
> 
>  **Content Warnings:** Underage drinking, discussion of a dead parent, recreational drug use

Dimitri shoves his hands in his pockets, wandering in the forest and not looking back. He keeps going straight, only moving to the side if a tree is in his direct path. He finally escapes the loud laughter and occasional chanting, embracing the silence outside of the branches bending in the breeze. When he looks up he sees that the moon is full, the trees looking like heavenly arms reaching toward him. He keeps walking, no longer obsessively walking in a straight line. 

It’s not that he dislikes parties. At least, he doesn’t think he dislikes them. He can’t say he’s been to many woods parties, but they are certainly a right of passage at North Fhirdiad High School. They begin to crop up whenever it’s remotely warm enough, typically on a randomly warm weekend in March, and last until whenever the football season ends. The location is never the same place twice, but people always figure it out somehow. 

Even then, he’s not entirely certain he is a party person. They tend to come with way too many variables for him to truly feel comfortable at them, even if he has familiar faces surrounding them.

But at least the setting of woods parties was grounding. Of all the things that terrify Dimitri, forests never have. In truth, they remind him of his childhood. His mind, though fractured, can recall traipsing through the trees by his house, walking across fallen logs or sloshing in a creek as his friends Felix, Ingrid, and Sylvain trailed behind him. 

Glenn would be there sometimes. He’s the oldest of all of them. At some point his time with them transitioned from being a friend to a babysitter and no one really knew how to make sense of it. Regardless, Dimitri was certain that he hit a point where he certainly had better to do than to play pretend and break up petty squabbles. 

Now Glenn is a college student; a freshman at a state school who already knows what he wants to major in, even though he’s two spring semesters away from having to declare anything. He’s only been at school for eight months and it feels like he’s this new, more mature person. DImitri is surprised that Glenn even wanted to attend the party, which only has a smattering of college students attending it, several spring breaks lining up well enough with it.

He isn’t certain where Glenn ended up. Glenn came to the party with Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, and Sylvain. He even reminded everybody to put their GPS coordinates into their phone to make sure they all knew how to get back to it. But sometime between Sylvain getting yelled at by a past hook up and Dimitri having to turn down several beers, he lost track of him. 

The slow rolling sound of water begins to cut through the occasional branches moving with the breeze. He follows it, feeling the ground sink under his weight with each step. Dimitri fumbles for his phone in his pocket, turning on the flashlight to see if he can spot any potential puddles. They glow under the harsh light, Dimitri’s path weaving to evade them. 

When a particularly large one takes up a large portion of his path, he decides to see if he can jump it. He rocks back on his heels several times before he hops, his spring slipping forward as his ass falls into the water. The mud soaks through his jeans immediately. He yells as an afterthought, an experiment to hear how it sounds. 

The sky is a beautiful sight. The moon is visible as the clouds whipping past. He knows that he should get up, but with the water already soaked through to his underwear, he feels that he has achieved the worst case scenario. When a bright light shines in his eyes, he covers them but makes no effort to move.

“What the _fuck_ , Dima?” the person asks.

Dimitri finally sits up. There’s only a small subsection of people who call him that nickname. A majority of them are probably still drinking Coronas from Sylvain’s dad’s stash by a fire. 

“Glenn?” he asks tentatively.

The person points the flashlight toward their own face, confirming that it’s definitely Glenn. It creates distorted shadows against his face, a darkness setting deep under his eyes. 

“It sure is,” Glenn finally says. He puts his phone in his pocket before he reaches out toward Dimitri. Dimitri takes a deep breath, grabbing Glenn’s hand. Glenn leans back and yanks his hand, Dimitri slowly shifting himself upright. Outside of Glenn’s leg buckling the slightest bit, he’s still able to pull up someone substantially taller than him with relative ease. Dimitri considers complimenting him, but he resists, not wanting to sound condescending.

“Are you all right?” Glenn asks, reaching up to place his hand on Dimitri’s shoulder, “You’re not…” Glenn scrunches up his nose and shakes his hand. 

“No,” Dimitri says, uninterested in supplying Glenn with the laundry list of mental illness symptoms he is prone to experiencing. Luckily, there isn’t anything to report. 

“Well, that’s good,” Glenn says, tugging Dimitri by his sleeve and spinning him around. He makes a face, which is definitely confirmation as to how bad his pants look. “You should _Hey Arnold!_ it,” he suggests.

“ _Hey Arnold!_ …” Dimitri starts, his eyebrows furrowed. Eventually, he jogs a memory of the cartoon, his eyes lighting up. He shrugs his jacket off and then his flannel, tying it off at his waist before putting his jacket on again. 

Glenn watches him put himself together again. He tugs at the flannel, making sure it covers the wet spot. His hands fall against Dimitri’s hips several times, making Dimitri squeak awkwardly in response. It’s loud enough for Glenn to stop fussing, bringing his hands into the pockets of his worn leather jacket. Glenn takes a deep breath, eventually taking one of his hands out of his pockets to tuck his hair out of his face. It’s one of the rare occasions that he doesn’t have his hair pulled back, waves of inky black hair tumbling past his shoulders. 

“Are you all right?” Dimitri asks, wondering if he waited too long for Glenn to see it as sincere. 

Glenn nods. “Yeah, I just think I’ve grown out of woods parties,” he admits, “I was trying to figure out where the creek was, if you wanna join me.”

“Sure,” Dimitri replies. 

The two of them walk in silence, Dimitri trying to be more careful with his steps. 

The silence between the two of them is pleasant, in spite of the fact that Dimitri’s heart is pounding. He’s rarely had alone time with Glenn. Even when Dimitri visits his family home, he’s rarely without Felix, except for when he goes to the bathroom or makes Dimitri attempt to negotiate with Glenn to let them play video games.

Glenn checks his phone and laughs. It’s loud and wheezy, but familiar. It reverberates in Dimitri’s bones in a pleasant way nonetheless. When he’s done laughing he feels a fluttering in his chest that reminds him why he has never tried to seek Glenn out. 

He’s pretty certain that this is what a crush feels like. He’s always been too scared to ask anybody for confirmation. He has seen other people attempt to ask similar questions, which always ends in everyone asking who they’re having feelings for. While he loves all his friends dearly, he does not want to admit that he’s pretty certain that he has a longstanding crush on one of their older brothers. Especially when they are still trying to process that after years of claiming he was a lesbian, he’s actually a gay guy. 

The problem is that he finds Glenn is unbelievably charming to Dimitri. His exterior is prickly, from his caustic sarcasm to the studded leather jacket and clunky boots. But he always knows when to drop the act, unbothered when he has to speak with a kinder tone to make sure Dimitri knows when he isn’t angry at him. Even now, he stops short, turning to make sure that Dimitri doesn’t wander too far behind, pushing branches to the side and holding them in place before Dimitri passes through.

There’s an aspirational piece of this that Dimitri can admit to easier than he can ever admit to the crush. Unfortunately, he’s fairly certain that he can’t achieve it in this town, his reputation usually outpacing his good deeds. All he can do is bank on not having another meltdown for the rest of his high school career and be able to start fresh when he can leave for college.

Glenn pushes through a low bush, the two of them finding the creek. Once Dimitri passes through it Glenn lets the branches swing into place. Glenn takes a shaky breath before he slips his hand in the pocket of his jacket. He pulls something rectangular out of it, bringing it to his mouth. He takes a pull from it and tilts his head away to allow smoke to escape out of his mouth.

“Are you vaping?” Dimitri asks.

Glenn laughs. “Yeah, I am,” he says, “Don’t tell Felix.”

Dimitri nods, unable to deny that it’s exciting to have a secret between himself and Glenn. 

Glenn takes another pull from it. “Do you want any?” he asks. He immediately shakes his head. “Actually, no. I take that back. I’m not getting you high for the first time in the woods.”

Dimitri wants to argue with him, but he knows there’s no point in acting like he’s ever even tried to get high. He isn’t even sure he should. His therapist gave him a worksheet that says that he needs to “avoid mood-altering drugs” to maintain emotional regulation. He wasn’t really doing any drugs when he was emotionally dysregulated, but he has no interest in tempting fate.

“Well, we found it!” Glenn exclaims, tucking his vape in his pocket again. He turns toward Dimitri and laughs. “Bend down,” he instructs.

Dimitri gasps. “W-what?!” he asks.

“You got a twig in your hair,” Glenn says, still laughing. Dimitri lowers his head and Glenn reaches over, tugging it out of his hair and flicking it to the side. “I can’t believe you’ve gotten so _tall_ ,” Glenn whines, “Please tell me you’ve stopped growing.”

Dimitri smiles nervously, the corners of his lips aching from it. “I’m done, I think,” he finally says.

The two of them face the creek. The moonlight catches on the water, causing it to shimmer as it moves. Smooth rocks hugs against it, several larger ones sticking out of the ground. Glenn spots a pair of rocks nearby and he claims the larger of the two, scrambling up it as Dimitri follows behind him.

“Your mom was tall, right?” Glenn asks as he sits down.

Dimitri joins him, lifting the flannel up before he sits on the other rock. “I think so,” Dimitri says once he’s comfortable. “She looks tall in photos.” 

It doesn’t hurt talking about his mom. He knows that it’s one of the few things people are probably comfortable with him having a fit over, but he can’t. It’s hard to miss someone he has no memories of. Especially when his father refuses to speak about her.

“It’s just wild to me that your entire family are giants,” Glenn mutters. He attempts to cross his legs, hitting the rock with the back of his worn out boots. 

Dimitri smirks. A wicked part of him is excited that he towers over Glenn. He’s lucky enough that he tends to be taller than a sizable amount of cis guys, but the rush that comes with it is usually the relief of personal safety. With Glenn, he feels a warmth pooled in his stomach, as if it presents some form of an opportunity he can’t quite make sense of yet.

Dimitri tries to focus on the water, Glenn shifting loud enough to make him turn around. He’s focused on staring at the moon, his fingers attempting to guide tangles out of his hair.

The warmth continues to build inside Dimitri, his mind conjuring up timelines in which he gets up and kisses Glenn when he least expects it. He impulsively grabs at his bottom lip, tugging at the flaky skin there.

Glenn glances down, lightly punching his arm. “Stop picking at your lips. You really gotta break that habit.” 

Dimitri lowers his hand, unable to resist wedging his lip between his teeth. His mind sputters out, unable to think anything aside from the fact that Glenn has watched his lips enough to notice. He brings his knees up, pressing his face against them. He feels Glenn’s hand brush against his back. It makes Dimitri’s heart race, but he doesn’t flinch.

Even with everything churning within him, there’s a sense of peace that unfolds between him and Glenn. He eventually peaks over his knees to watch the water, listening to Glenn shift next to him, but resisting turning his head. 

He’s tempted to ruin the silence with mundane questions about how Glenn is liking college or if he has any insights about how crushes work. He resists, afraid of breaking whatever spell the moment has over the two of them. 

It takes their phones buzzing in harmony for the two of them to turn toward each other. Glenn grabs his phone, the screen bright as he brings it toward himself. Dimitri takes his own phone out of his pocket and sees that a message was just sent into their group chat. It’s from Sylvain, letting them know that the party got broken up and that he, Felix, and Ingrid are making their way back to the car. 

Glenn begins to write a response, Dimitri watching his thumbs race across his screen. He sends it, putting the phone back in his pocket. Dimitri looks down at his phone, greeted to Glenn’s response staging that he and Dimitri are taking the scenic route back. Dimitri has no idea what he means, but he’s excited to find out.


End file.
